For the past three years I had been preparing Astraea for cruising. Over three years she has spent some 14+ months in Svendsen's Boatworks in Alameda in an almost total refit. She was ready to go, or so I thought.
In the week before our scheduled departure on October 26th 2009 for Mexico with the Baja Haha I was busy provisioning, fueling, and making countless trips to the chandelries for supplies. The "to do" list was almost complete, the "buy" list was complete, and we were ready to head South to Mexico.
Then, on Sunday, October 18, while doing engine checks, I heard this rather distinct metallic noise coming from the engine. It was a noise that I knew was not there before. It sounded like something was loose on the engine and rattling or banging against the engine. I checked every part of the engine and could find nothing loose, no oil leaks, nothing apparently wrong with the engine. A few marina mates listened and nobody thought it was serious, but it bothered me. First thing on Monday morning I called the local Westerbeke distributor and asked for a qualified diesel mechanic to come and listen to the engine and check it out. I just did not trust this new sound. It could be nothing, diesels are inherently noisey, or it could be something significant. I was not willing to take off on an 800 miles trip to Cabo San Lucas with an engine that I did not trust.
Now this was NOT expected as the new Westerbeke engine that was installed last year by the boatyard in Alameda had less than 180 hours on it. That is not even broken in for a new diesel.
Finally, four days later, on Thursday afternoon, the mechanic arrived. He turned out to be a very experienced master mechanic with 30+ years of experience. This guy knows diesels. He listened and started doing what I had done, looking for something loose on the engine. He then proceeded to open each of the air injectors and when the air injector for cylinder #4 was opened the metallic clanging noise stopped. This was not a good sign. In fact it was a very bad sign. The mechanic looked a bit concerned and said he would return on Friday afternoon with some special instruments. I could see our underway date for Monday starting to fade.
On Friday, as promised, the mechanic showed up with a second mechanic and some sound isolation devices. He also conferred with one of the mechanics at the boat yard in Alameda, Svendsen's, who installed the new engine. The analysis was not good. It appeared that there was a bad rod bearing, rod, or rod connector in cylinder #4. Continuing to run the engine would soon result in throwing a rod through the engine block and destroying the engine. The mechanics took an oil sample and departed, and I called my crew to give them the sad news that we were not going to make it.
(ENTRY IN PROGRESS)
For almost two months an endless progression of mechanics were sent by the West Coast Westerbeke representative to do tests of the engine. After four mechainics, two oil analyses, and many tests it was determined that there was salt water contamination in the engine, which would invalidate the new engine warranty. the prevalent theory was that this contamination had caused a bent rod or a bad rod bearing, which was causing the noise. I placed a call to my insurance representative and they sent out an insurance investigator to look at the problem. His decision, along with the insurance company, was to remove the engine and take it to a local marine diesel shop for disassembly and a determination of the cause of the failure. After almost two months since hearing a problem in my new Westerbeke engine the engine has been removed and disassembled in the diesel shop. It turns out it was NOT what I expected. It was not a bent rod or a bad rod bearing as four mechanics had thought. The noise was a result of the 4th cylinder only occasionally firing due to serious corrosion. The 3rd cylinder was not much better. Also, the entire interior of the engine was full of carbon and gunk due to incomplete combustion caused by excessive backpressue. The damage is the result of the cumulative process of water intrusion through the wet exhaust sytem since the engine was installed. Here are some pictures of the engine removal. It was must easier than I expected. Three men had the engine out and on the dock in about 2 hours. I was really surprised. However they were very experienced professionals and knew what they were doing. That always helps. Here is the engine being disconnected from fuel, water, cooling, shaft, etc. and prepared for lifting Lifting the engine out of the engine compartment, which is below the cockpit soleThe engine resting on the cockpit sole and ready to be manhandled aft to beneath the companionway The engine comes up through the companionway. The end of the boom is being used as a lifting point for the hoistThe engine, without the transmission, is swung out over the pier using the main boom as a craneThe engine was laid out at the diesel shop in Chula Vista like something from "CSI Miami", only this was "CSI Diesel". All the parts laid out for inspection, analysis, and photographing by the insurance adjustor. What an ugly mess. The poor combustion and the heavy salt water backflow had left it black and gooey and rusted all through the interiorExtensive review of the engine installation on Astraea determined that the wet exhaust system was improperly designed.In the installation of the new engine on Astraea the design of the wet exhaust system had been done such that each time the engine was shut off the volume of water spilling down from the high point in the exhaust system was significantly greater than the vertical water lift muffler could handle. This resulted in salt water from the wet exhaust backing up into the muffler system and then into the cylinders. This process had apparently been going on since the engine was installed and the damage was cumulative, culminating in a point where the damage was so extensive that I could hear the knocking from the badly damaged cylinders. It is actually quite amazing that the engine ran at all with such extensive damage. It is apparent that it would NOT have run much longer as the corrossion was moving further into the engine with time. Also, the height of the exhaust system loop had caused excessive back pressure, resulting in incomplete combustion and heavy carbonization and "gunking" of the engine with gooey black carbon in the culinders and valves. Mistakes happen. In this case the complex wet exhaust system was not designed correctly. Otherwise it was a beautiful installation. I am most happy with my original decision to go with my trusted boatyard, Svendsen's, to do the repowering. An independent mechanic would have been less expensive, but I wanted people I trusted to do this important job. My life, the life of my crew, and my boat could one day depend on the reliability of the engine. Once we discovered the cause of the problem was cumulative water intrusion from the wet exhaust system and not a manufacturing fault in the engine, Svendsens Boatworks, who installed the engine, quickly took responsibility and told me that they would fully stand behind their work and take care of replacing the engine with an identical modelThe reputation of Svendsen's at the marinas and yacht clubs in San Francisco is that they do the best work in the Bay Area and they stand behind their work. I am delighted to find out first hand that repuation is well deserved